Why don't the emails that I send through Amazon SES get delivered?

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when you run AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands, then see Troubleshooting errors for the AWS CLI. Also, make sure that you're using the most recent AWS CLI version.

Messages that Amazon SES sends can experience email delivery issues at the following steps in the sending process:

• When your email client sends the message to Amazon SES.
• When Amazon SES sends the message to the recipient's domain.
• When the message is inside Amazon SES.

For more information, see Three places where your email could get delayed when sending through SES.

Check for sending issues from the email client to Amazon SES

Review your email client for error messages that Amazon SES returns. If Amazon SES returns Maximum sending rate exceeded or Daily sending quota exceeded error messages, then resolve these errors.

AWS places new AWS accounts in the Amazon SES sandbox. When your account is in the Amazon SES sandbox, you can send emails only to verified recipients or to the mailbox simulator. Check if your sending account is in the Amazon SES sandbox. If your account is in the sandbox, then request production access. Or, if you haven't verified recipient's email address or domain, then verify it.

Note: AWS places accounts in each region into the sandbox.

Check if Amazon SES put your account under a sending pause. If Amazon SES paused your sending ability, then resolve the issue that led to the sending pause and request a review of your account.

If you encounter a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) timeout or connectivity issues, then troubleshoot the TCP connection and the SSL/TLS negotiations. To identify client-side issues, use the AWS CLI to test your connection to the Amazon SES SMTP endpoint.

Verify that your SMTP client uses TLS version 1.2 or later. Amazon SES doesn't accept emails from no longer supported versions of TLS.

Check for deliverability issues from Amazon SES to the recipient domain

Use Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), Virtual Deliverability Manager, or Amazon SES event publishing to set up bounce notifications. If you receive a notification that your bounce rate or complaint rate is high, then use the reputation dashboard to review your reputation metrics. The reputation dashboard contains recommendations for how to resolve sender reputation issues. To lower your bounce rate, see How can I handle a high bounce rate with emails that I send using Amazon SES?

Check for delays when you send your email. Use event publishing to monitor delays that happen when Amazon SES tries to deliver email to the recipient's internet service provider (ISP).

Make sure that your email isn't in your recipient's spam folder.

Check for sending or configuration issues in Amazon SES

Make sure that the recipient's email address isn't on your Amazon SES account-level suppression list or global suppression list.

If the emails that you send with the SendTemplatedEmail API operation contain incorrect template data, then you receive a Rendering Failure event notification. If you use the SendTemplatedEmail API operation to send messages, then use Amazon SNS to set up Rendering Failure event notifications. Then, troubleshoot Rendering Failure notifications that you receive.

Review the AWS Health Dashboard for issues that occur when Amazon SES sends emails.

Related information

Common Errors

Getting started with Virtual Deliverability Manager